In ink jet printers a stream of ink is directed at a medium to produce a pattern corresponding to the information to be printed. One such printer is described in copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 497,386 entitled "Ink Jet Printer" filed May 23, 1983, by D. B. Durkee et. al. and having a common assignee with this application. As described in the referenced application, ink droplets are directed at the surface of a rotating transfer drum. The ink pattern deposited upon the drum is transferred to a sheet of paper which is brought into contact with the surface of the drum. The paper handling mechanism used in such printers must meet certain criteria. As described in the aforementioned application, the paper must initially contact the drum at a predetermined location to assure accurate positioning of the information on the paper. Physical contact between the drum and the components of the apparatus must be carefully controlled to prevent smearing of the ink image on the transfer drum. Additionally, upon transfer and for a short time thereafter, the ink is wet and thus contact between the surface of the paper and other objects must be avoided.